Techniques

Most e-government projects fail (follow this link for evidence in this sense). If this happens, e-government practitioners involved may wish to understand why. This page offers some basic guidance on how to identify causes of failure on e-government projects in developing/transitional countries.

General Questions About Identifying Failure Causes

Why ? The aim of identifying failure causes is learning and knowledge building either in order to reduce the risk on future e-government projects and/or in order to revive the currently failed project.

When ? Identification of failure causes can be done at any time after implementation of the e-government project. The sooner you identify failure causes, the sooner you can do something about it and the fresher everyone's memory of events will be. On the other hand, a later evaluation can bring more perspective and objectivity to the process.

Who ? A small team consisting of a mix of different stakeholders is the best unit to identify causes of e-gov failure. The fewer people involved, the greater the chance that you miss an important cause and the greater the difficulties of cascading knowledge throughout the organisation. The more people involved, the higher the time and financial and other costs of the exercise.